“Watch your heart during all your life – examine it, listen to it, and see what prevents its union with the Most Blessed Lord. Let this be for you the science of all sciences, and with God’s help you will easily observe what estranges you from God, and what draws you towards Him and unites you to Him.”
Saint John of Kronstadt
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“The Soul, the Soul, take care of it more than the flesh which will return to the Earth and be eaten by worms.”
Saint Arsenios of Cappadocia
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“Why do you increase your bonds? Take hold of your life before your light grows dark and you seek help and do not find it.”
Saint Isaac the Syrian
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“Preserve the attention of your mind.”
Saint Pachomios of Chios
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“Attention is called the keeping of the mind, guarding of the heart, vigilance, and noetic quietude.”
Saint Pachomios of Chios
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“The heart can change several times in one moment to good or evil, to faith or unbelief, to simplicity or cunning, to love or hatred, to benevolence or envy, to generosity or avarice, to chastity of fornication. O, what inconstancy! O, how many dangers! O, how sober and watchful we must be!”
Saint John of Kronstadt
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“And he who wants more Grace, must prepare himself better for temptations.”
Saint Seraphim of Sarov
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“Grace always precedes a temptation, as if to notify you saying, ‘Prepare yourself and lock your doors.'”
Saint Joseph the Hesychast
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“You must work Spiritually not only until you see the fruit in your Soul, but also until your very end. For even ripe fruit is often destroyed by hail.”
Saint Isaac the Syrian
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“At around their thirty-fifth year, that is half-way through our Earthly life, people have a great struggle to remain true to themselves. At that age, many of them don’t remain virtuous, but go astray and follow the path of their desires.”
Saint Seraphim of Sarov
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“Be ever engaged, so that whenever the devil calls he may find you occupied.”
Saint Jerome of Stridon
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“As no darkness can be seen by anyone surrounded by light, so no trivialities can capture the attention of anyone who has his eyes on Christ.”
Saint Gregory of Nyssa
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“Fear evil like fire. Don’t let it touch your heart, even if it seems just or righteous. No matter what the circumstances, don’t let it come into you. Evil is always evil.”
Saint John of Kronstadt
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“All of us who walked towards the Kingdom of Light and Eternal Life are obliged to keep watch daily and see what sort of garments our Soul is clothed in. Let us look at those men and women who daily dress up, change clothes, decorate themselves, groom themselves and adorned themselves in order to physically look as nicely as they can. We ought to apply that much care and even more than that on the clothing of our Soul. They look at themselves in the Mirror. Our Mirror is Jesus Christ.”
Saint Nikolai Velimivoric
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“Once someone receives God’s Grace the war, the battle, begins. He receives great Grace and his body must also be transformed. The carnal mentality draws the Soul downwards, but at the same time God’s Grace draws it upwards. This is a difficult moment. Someone can be led astray from the right or from the left. The psychological pain is great, and it can strike him at the weakest point of his body, his heart or his brain. Then obedience to a discerning Elder is necessary. Our own will must disappear from within us.”
Saint Sophrony of Essex
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“Watch your heart during all your life – examine it, listen to it, and see what prevents its union with the Most Blessed Lord. Let this be for you the science of all sciences, and with God’s help you will easily observe what estranges you from God, and what draws you towards Him and unites you to Him.”
Saint John of Kronstadt
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“If my Soul has no open windows, no mud can be thrown into it.”
Saint Nikolai Velimivoric
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“Moreover, the Holy Fathers noticed that when a person prepares to partake of the Holy Mysteries or expects to celebrate a Feast, the devil tries to cause the person to be annoyed and confuse his Soul so that the day is not spent in joy about the Lord, but in the sadness of the demonic. The reasons for his attack on us are different, but the most important is the condemnation of our neighbours, which is a sin, and except for fornication and except for another temptation, it defiles not the body in fact, but our very Soul.”
Saint Anthony of Optina
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“When a person is terminally ill, he often stops eating food. His friends and family then know that death is near. In the same respect, when the Angels see us refrain from the nourishment of Prayer and the Eucharist… they begin to grieve, because they know that our Souls are dying.”
Saint Ephraim the Syrian
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“Christ often comes and knocks at your door and you invite Him to sit in the living-room of your Soul. Then, absorbed in your own business you forget the Great Visitor. He waits for you to appear and when you are too long in returning, He gets up and leaves. At other times, you are so busy that you answer Him from the window. You don’t even have time to open the door.”
Saint Amphilochios Makris of Patmos
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“When we have an important guest in our home we endeavour to do everything that is well pleasing for that guest. Can there be a greater guest than the Holy Spirit of God?… let us take care that we not grieve our Most High Guest Who comes to us with the richest gifts. O God the Holy Spirit, forgive our negligence toward Your Immortal Majesty and do not leave us empty and worthless without You.”
Saint Nikolai Velimivorich
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“However hard the devil may try, he cannot enter and dwell in the soul that is wholly occupied by Christ, because he cannot fit; there is no empty place for him.”
Saint Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia
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“Whoever allows himself, to sin arbitrarily, with the hope that he will repent, deals treacherously with God. Death strikes him unexpectedly, and he does not live to the time which he presumed to devote to virtue.”
Saint Isaac the Syrian